The 1952 Cleveland Browns season was the team's third season with the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

and seventh season overall. They were 8–4 in the regular season and won the American Conference. Cleveland hosted the

NFL Championship Game Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...

, but lost 17–7 to the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

Exhibition schedule

Regular season

Schedule

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. :* Saturday night (October 4)

Game summaries

Week 1

The Browns avenged their December

championship game In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

loss to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with a 37–7 romp over the Rams at Cleveland Stadium. The Browns took a 23–0 halftime lead and never headed. Ken Carpenter rushed for 145 yards on 16 carries and the Browns defense limited Rams quarterbacks

Norm Van Brocklin Norman Mack Van Brocklin (March 15, 1926 – May 2, 1983), nicknamed "The Dutchman", was an American football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. He spent his first nine seasons with the Los Ang ...

and

Bob Waterfield Robert Stanton Waterfield (July 26, 1920 – March 25, 1983) was an American professional football player and coach. He played quarterback for the UCLA Bruins and Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ...

to a combined six completions in 27 attempts.

Week 4

Despite being without injured wide receiver

Dante Lavelli Dante Bert Joseph "Gluefingers" Lavelli (February 23, 1923 – January 20, 2009) was an American professional football player who was an end for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NF ...

and Carpenter and then losing defensive end

Bob Gain Robert Gain (June 21, 1929 – November 14, 2016) was an American football player who played 13 seasons for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL), and also played in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played in five Pro Bo ...

to a broken jaw, the Browns had little problem pounding the Eagles 49–7 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. It is Cleveland's 5th win over Philadelphia in as many meetings.

Otto Graham Otto Everett Graham Jr. (December 6, 1921 – December 17, 2003) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Graha ...

threw for 290 yards and four touchdowns and even backup quarterback

George Ratterman George William Ratterman (November 12, 1926 – November 3, 2007) was an American football player in the All-America Football Conference and the National Football League. Early life He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated from St. X ...

got into the act, throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to

Horace Gillom Horace Albert "Big Horse" Gillom (March 3, 1921 – October 28, 1985) was an American football punter and end in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). He played ten seasons for the Cleveland Browns betwee ...

Week 6

In the first-ever regular season meeting between the

and the Browns, the Lions won 17–6, at

Briggs Stadium Tiger Stadium, previously known as Navin Field and Briggs Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in the Corktown, Detroit, Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. The stadium was nicknamed "The Corner" for its location at the intersection of U. ...

. The Lions led 10–6, when a Graham pass intended for

Ray Renfro Austin Raymond Renfro (November 7, 1929 – August 4, 1997) was an American professional gridiron football player. Renfro attended the University of North Texas and played in 12 NFL seasons from 1952–1963 for the Cleveland Browns. He is the fa ...

was picked off by

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Jack Christiansen John LeRoy Christiansen (December 20, 1928 – June 29, 1986) was an American professional football player who became a college and pro coach. He played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions as a safety an ...

. On the Lions next play from scrimmage,

Bob Hoernschemeyer Robert James "Hunchy" Hoernschemeyer (September 25, 1925 – June 18, 1980) was an American football player. A native of Cincinnati, he played college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football ...

ran for 41 yards, setting up a

Bobby Layne Robert Lawrence Layne (December 19, 1926 – December 1, 1986) was an American football quarterback who played for 15 seasons in the National Football League. He played for the Chicago Bears in 1948, the New York Bulldogs in 1949, the Detroit ...

Leon Hart Leon Joseph Hart (November 2, 1928 – September 24, 2002) was an American football end. He won the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award while at the University of Notre Dame in 1949 and played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight se ...

touchdown pass.

Week 10

The Browns took a one-game lead in the Eastern Conference with a 48–24 win at

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Chick Jagade Harry Charles Jagade (December 9, 1926 – November 1968) was an American football fullback in the National Football League for the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears. He also played in the All-America Football Conference for the Baltimore ...

ran for 127 yards on 16 carries, including a 17-yard touchdown scamper on a draw play. Carpenter also had a big day returning punts including one for 53 yards and a touchdown.

Week 12

Needing a win in the season finale to clinch the American Conference Title, the Browns (8–3) traveled to the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, but lost to the

Giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) *Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...

, 37–34.

Charlie Conerly Charles Albert Conerly Jr. (September 19, 1921 – February 13, 1996) was an American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1948 through 1961. Conerly was inducted into the College Football Hall ...

fired four touchdown passes for the Giants while Graham threw three interceptions. The Browns clinched anyway when Washington upset Philadelphia.

Standings

NFL Championship Game

Roster and coaching staff

References

External links

1952 Cleveland Browns
at Pro Football Reference (profootballreference.com)
1952 Cleveland Browns Statistics
at jt-sw.com
1952 Cleveland Browns Schedule
at jt-sw.com

at DatabaseFootball.com

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Cleveland Browns seasons

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

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